Jeffrey James Exon courtesy of the Shawnee County Department of Corrections, Aurora Exon via screenshot of obituary video
A 47-year-old man in Kansas will likely spend the rest of his life behind bars for killing his 2-year-old daughter by starving the child to death. A Shawnee County jury found Jeffrey James Exon guilty on charges of first-degree felony murder, second-degree murder, aggravated endangering of a child, and failure to report the death of a child in the horrific slaying of young Aurora Exon, authorities confirmed to Law&Crime.
Officers with the Topeka Police Department on Jan. 5, 2021, took Exon into custody after the 45-year-old father called 911 to report that his daughter had stopped breathing. He told the 911 dispatcher that the toddler had recently been “starving herself.”
First responders and emergency medical personnel arrived on the scene but had no chance to save the child, who had been dead for several days. Officers and medics on the scene reported that Aurora was cold to the touch and in rigor mortis, a post-mortem stiffening of the muscles that typically does not set in until 12 hours after death. The toddler was pronounced dead at the scene.
While processing the scene, police reportedly found at least five empty liquor bottles in Exon’s bedroom.
Deputy Shawnee County District Coroner Altaf Hossain, the forensic pathologist who conducted Aurora’s autopsy, determined that the toddler’s cause of death was marasmus, a type of protein-energy malnutrition that resulted from negligence on the part of her caregiver, the Topeka Capital-Journal reported.
At the time of Aurora’s death, Exon reportedly had custody of both Aurora and her 4-year-old brother, Theodore “Teddy” Exon. The children’s mother, Seonaid Nichols, testified during the trial that after she and Exon broke up, her housing situation was not well-suited to having children around, so she agreed to let the kids stay with their father.
During the trial, prosecutors recounted how Teddy told authorities that his father would lock him and Aurora in their rooms for multiple days at a time without giving them any food, telling the kids he kept them locked away so he could sleep, Topeka CBS affiliate WIBW reported.
Others who testified during the proceedings included three employees from the Sheldon Child Development Center Head Start, the preschool that Teddy attended.
According to the Capital-Journal, all three school employees spoke to having serious concerns about Exon’s physical and mental state, saying that in October 2020 he appeared gaunt and visibly drunk when he picked up his son from the bus stop.
One of the preschool employees also recalled that Exon had tried to explain away his diminished physical state by saying he had been on pain medication for a neck injury and drank a single alcoholic beverage earlier in the day.
Exon’s brother, Michael Exon, reportedly testified that his younger brother had a long history of alcohol abuse, adding that his brother also lied about being sober in the last two years prior to Aurora’s death.
In August 2021, Shawnee County District Judge Nancy Parrish determined that Exon was able to stand trial following a competency evaluation.
Exon is scheduled to be before Judge Parrish again on July 28 for his sentencing hearing.
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